Section 1- Important results
All Japan: Kojima ended Kawada’s 17 month long Triple Crown reign with a lariat, and will go on to face Tenzan on Sunday in the unification match. A live report said Kadawa had a foot on the ropes during the pin, but Kawada isn’t challenging the result. Kawada had the second longest Triple Crown reign ever, and had a record number of defenses. After 22 years in wrestling he might never see the title again. Kojima, meanwhile, was the biggest of wrestlers debuting in the early ’90s to not get a major title up to this point. He previously had 2 IWGP title shots and challenged Tenryu and Hashimoto for the Triple Crown. Also on the card, Mutoh pinned Tanahashi following a moonsault in a very competitive match.
Dragons Gate: Mochizuki retained the O.D.G. title over Ryo Saito on the 6th.
Section 2- Other news & Upcoming matches
All Japan: On Saturday, a juniors triple crown will be created when Taka takes on Great Sasuke. The belts in question represent All Japan, Michinoku Pro, and Taka’s K-Dojo promotion. Also, the promotion has added Chuck Palumbo to their ranks.
BIG MOUTH: They’re currently planning a show in April. A number of expected wrestlers (Minoru Suzuki, Sasaki, Shibata, etc) have made their participation in the promotion official. A new name to come up is Riki Choshu, and there’s a rumored Choshu vs Shibata match in the works for the promotion’s debut.
Dragons Gate: They’ll be doing an 8 man welterweight (as in less than junior/cruiserweight level) tournament on 3/13 to crown a secondary champion. A similar title in Toryumon was held by Yossino. He, K-Ness, Doi, Super Shisa, Horiguchi, Naoki Tanisaki, Danny of the Florida Brothers and one to be named will be the participants. There could also be an O.D.G. title match on the show.
New Japan: Harry Smith suffered an arm injury, forcing him off Sunday’s Sumo Hall show. He’ll be replaced in the big 4 vs 4 match by Nagai. In a related note, I caught one of Harry’s first matches in New Japan and he looks to be a tremendous talent. Also, Tenzan was said to be suffering some intense pain due to nerve damage, and he missed several tour dates, but he’s said to have recovered and is going to be in the IWGP vs Triple Crown match with Kojima. Just a reminder, they had a match in December that went to a 30 minute time limit draw.
NOAH: Akiyama’s partner for the match against Tenryu and Minoru Suzuki on 3/5 was revealed to be Takeshi Morishima. Misawa will be occupied by Shinjiro Ohtani, as Misawa and Kotaro Suzuki face the invading Ohtani and Takaiwa. Also on the Budokan card, Marufuji defends the Openweight title against Yone. NOAH’s next Budokan card has been set for 4/25.
While WWE was in Japan, Misawa met up with WWE talent relations head and former All Japan mainstay Johnny Ace. They seemed to be hinting at co-promotion at a Tokyo Dome show, and also potential use of WWE wrestlers in NOAH. Ace was responsible for getting many released WWE-ers jobs in All Japan (Palumbo being the latest), and NOAH might be next up as a sort-of storage facility for midcard veterans. Is it ‘looking out for the boys’, or is it keeping them out of TNA? Should we start seeing ‘call ups’ of wrestlers back to WWE, a lot would be revealed.
Zero-One: Naohiro Hoshikawa continues to recover from his near-paralysis last year, and is able to feed himself, though he won’t be able to leave the hospital for several more months.
Next Week: The result of Tenzan vs Kojima, and a mini-guide to tape buying and trading.
Enjoy it while you can, Koji.
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